Prison For Stalking Former Prosecutor

The Maryland Daily Record reports on a recent sentencing of a former prosecutor

A former Baltimore homicide prosecutor will spend two years in federal prison for illegally issuing subpoenas in order to surveil and stalk former romantic partners, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The sentence is above federal sentencing guidelines for Adam L. Chaudry, 43, who pleaded guilty in December to two felony counts of fraud in connection with obtaining confidential phone records.

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett said the entire city of Baltimore is victimized when prosecutors misuse their authority.

“This metropolitan area has faced jolt after jolt after jolt,” Bennett said, referring to repeated law enforcement scandals that have plagued the city. “The real victims here are the citizens of Baltimore. They have witnessed a manifest abuse of power.”

The federal indictment against Chaudry accused him of improperly issuing 67 grand jury and trial subpoenas between January 2019 and April 2021. The primary target of the subpoenas was Chaudry’s ex-girlfriend, whose relationship with him lasted from 2005 until 2018.

Chaudry used his authority as a city prosecutor to issue 33 subpoenas for the woman’s telephone records. Three of the woman’s friends were also targeted, as was a second woman with whom Chaudry had a romantic relationship from 2017 through 2020.

In court on Tuesday, the first woman said Chaudry’s actions had left her in constant fear that he would show up at her home or send her flowers, a move he used to show that he was keeping tabs on her.

She debated whether to report Chaudry’s actions but feared he would be protected because of his connections in law enforcement.

“I did not ask for this and I definitely didn’t deserve it,” she said. “I may never feel entirely safe again.”

The Daily Record is not naming the woman in order to protect her privacy because she was the victim of a years-long stalking and harassment campaign.

Chaudry apologized in court and said his actions were the result of built-up stress that intensified while he was a homicide prosecutor in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office.

“I realize today that this allocution I’ll make will be the last closing argument I’ll ever make in court,” Chaudry said to Bennett. (Chaudry also agreed to be disbarred.)

“I understand the trust that I betrayed,” Chaudry said.

His lawyer, Andrew C. White, said Chaudry also had an alcohol problem that contributed to his personal issues. White said his client has lived a “lifetime of service to others” and asked Bennett to impose a sentence of one year.

Chaudry was first charged in state court by the Office of the State Prosecutor, but the case was later moved into federal court, where the charges could bring harsher penalties.

According to facts read at Chaudry’s plea hearing, he used the first woman’s phone records to create a spreadsheet of personal phone calls she had made and received, including one to her obstetrician-gynecologist. He also used personal information about the woman to request information about her stays at a hotel that appeared in her phone records.

Chaudry also requested phone records for three men the woman had met while volunteering because he was “suspicious one of these men was dating his ex-girlfriend,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

“These men were being examined and investigated by someone they did not know, merely because their fellow volunteer had broken up with (Chaudry).”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Delaney said it was impossible to quantify the harm that Chaudry had caused.

“When the trust that’s lost is the public’s trust, who is the victim? In essence, we all are,” Delaney said.

Chaudry left the State’s Attorney’s Office in June 2021 after an internal investigation. Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, who took over the office this year, attended Chaudry’s sentencing, as did U.S. Attorney Erek Barron.

Former Chief Deputy State’s Attorney for Baltimore City Michael Schatzow, who supervised Chaudry, also attended and addressed Bennett. He said Chaudry’s actions were a betrayal of all of his colleagues who worked to rebuild the community’s trust in city prosecutors.

“The distrust of the community for law enforcement and the criminal justice system is monumental (in Baltimore), and I wouldn’t say it’s totally undeserved” Schatzow said. “He devoted himself to undermining that trust.”

Bennett ordered Chaudry to receive mental health treatment for what the judge called “a compulsiveness and an obsessiveness” that drove Chaudry to stalk his ex-girlfriends. Chaudry will also serve three years of supervised release. He must report to federal prison by June 19.

As he sentenced Chaudry, Bennett emphasized the immense trust that is bestowed upon prosecutors and posed a question: “Who watches the watchmen?”

“I guess now, I do,” the judge said.

Michael Schatzow is my college fraternity brother and former colleague at the Maryland Federal Public Defender. (Mike Frisch)